Wacky Winter Fishing

Over Christmas the weird and wacky winter fishing season has continued. We have been seeing larger and more numerus feeder Chinook than typical for Georgia Straight. Additionally they are in all sorts of different locations than normal. Our standard winter fishing is trolling in 200ft of water right on the bottom on the East side of Gabriola Island. But this winter the Chinook are in shallow water everywhere from Five Fingers to Entrance Island reef. However they are also loads of them down deep in their usual places. The fish are also larger than normal with an average of at least 12lbs being caught. Shallow jigging Entrance reef is still working just like in the summer. I even spoke with one fishermen that took some sort of fly fishing rig out to the reef and was hitting springs at 30ft! This is basically unheard of for this time of year. 

Best lures in Nanaimo have been green glow hoochies and glow cop car spoons for trolling, and half jigs for jigging. 

I'm hearing very similar reports for the Howe Sound fishermen. French Creek seems to have mostly undersized fish just now, but hey have very good numbers.

The Coho are still here, but retention for them closed Jan 1st. However the fact they are still here is great news for later in the year.

Prawn winter closers are in effect for many heavy use areas but a careful review of the regulations shows several sub-areas that are still open. Be sure to check before you drop your gear that you are in an open area.

I'm always looking for reports and photos so if you want to contribute please email me at the address below.

Thanks to Brett Dougan for the fishing report and awesome photo seen above.

Tips up,

steve@harbourchandler.ca